12 Dec On Weltschmerz

Weltschmerz (German, pronounced as /ˈveltʃmerts/, world-pain) is a popular phrase coined by the German author Jean Paul Richter*, and it is connected to romanticists from the end of the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th century.

That name was an attempt at explaining and describing the collective feeling of grief and helplessness by which thousands of young people were stricken at the time, primarily artists and intellectuals. This is a sentimental and remorseful feeling of an entire generation, which was their reaction (and an expression of helplessness) in the face of evil, injustice and senselessness, which, as it seemed to them, marked the world in which they lived.

Romanticism in literature appeared after the Bourgeois Revolution in 1789, it lasted until the middle of the 19^th century, and it represents a kind of reaction to Classicism. This literary movement takes the feelings of man as the topic of creativity, it emphasizes irrationalism, and seeks its sources in national art and verbal creativity of its own people, but also foreign, oftentimes exotic peoples up until that point, and in distant historic periods.

At first, the name “romantic” only referred to poetry, because subjectivism of romantic poets could be primarily and most prominently expressed within it, and its personality could be so significant and present in a work of art. Only later did Romanticism enter epic prose and drama.

Romanticists prefer feelings to reason, and even sentimentality and they gladly succumb to sorrow and melancholy moods. Their creativity is strongly marked by poetic subjectivism, and their own personality, their personal inner world, often resides within its core. Romanticists carry feelings within themselves that they have to be free creators creating their own vision of the world. It is from there that glorification of imagination as the sole source and base artistic strength originates. Romanticists consider poetry created by imagination as the knowledge of the deepest reality and a kind of prophecy.

Romanticists compared themselves to titans. Poets considered themselves titans in their time and world, spiritual giants and rebels against force, authority and injustice. They feel especially close to one of the titans – Prometheus.

* Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out.

* Age does not matter if the matter does not age.

* A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes anothers.